White Coat Ceremony and a Morning Bike Ride

Last night was the formal induction of the incoming May 2009 class into thier physician training at AUC. Dubbed the "White Coat Cerermony", the induction and the donning of the white coat by one of our professors symbolized the transition of our former civilan life into that of a professioinal health care provider. There were many eloquent speakers that all spoke of thier own white coat ceremonies and the struggles, experiences, and rewards that their own education bought them. If you care to watch the ceremony it is available via webcast at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1511669 the highlight of the event is around 2:00:20 ;-). The following is an excerpt from an article about the white coat ceremony writen by Dr. Ellen Rothman:

"The white coat ceremony...was intended to herald our introduction into the medical community. while no the long coat of a phyusician or residen, the white coat signals our afiliaion, and differentiates us from the civilian garb of visitors and volunteers.

Yet as a first year medical student, this is not an affiliation I am necessaarily tready to claim. After anatomy, pharmacolgy, physiology, genetics, and embryology, I am more deeply impressed with how little I know than how much I have learned."

It is hard to imagine how much knowlege we truly lack, until we expose ourselves to new experiences, new countries, new people, new challenges, all the while remaing on the path that we have chosen to lead us for the rest of our lives.

Shortly after the ceremony we were all bussed into Maho for a fantastic dinner provided by AUC at the nightclub Tantra, the dinner was catered by an Italian resturaunt named Sopranos. The nightclubs here do not open until 1100 so we had the place to ourselves until then. Met alot of new people, spoke with alot of professors. And even traveled 2000 miles to meet up with a guy that I worked with in Baton Rouge who is in his 3rd semester here. Pretty cool huh!

As soon as the 1100 hour rang it was time for me to go, the tables were being cleared out and the ravers were coming in. Wondering how I was going to get back through the dreaded golf course in the middle of the night without loosing all of my possessions, I was met with another surprise outside. The school had also arranged for transportion back to the school with the campus police, who by far has the greatest motto I have ever seen on a law enforcement vehicle.

Safe and secure back home, I found the apartment complex was lit up quite nicely. Which encouraged a short swim before getting some sleep. It is so nice to be on a regular schedule!

Today was all about the bike, I awoke with a new task on hand. Get the Orbea put together and tuned up and ride, ride, ride. Except not alot of forethought went into my packaging of the bike, I did not pack any means of inflating the tires, so I had to ride up to the bike shop on about 40 psi of air in a tire that normally takes 120 psi. I made the journey without incidnet and met the owner of the shop in Simpson Bay, who tried to encourage me to come to the races tomorrow. Apparently every Sunday is race day in St. Maarten. The owner said that there was an "80 km race through the mountains tomorrow, but all of our races are very causal" 80K and mountains has never sounded casual to me, maybe the week after our first block exams (which are on May 25th so light a candle or whatever you can think of to get me over this first big hump), unless I implode before then.

After the ride, I made my way down to Mullet Bay Beach where the American Medical Student Association was having a welcome BBQ/recruitment party. Since being reverted to near poverty living on loans and a tight budget I can never turn away free food, no matter what it is. The weather was great, and it was a good way to get the mind off of the task at hand for a little while. As the rest of the day was observed from the confines of my little apartment study area, trying to decipher the nerves of the brachial plexus and tracing it back to the correct areas in the spinal cord.


Later and thanks for following my adventure.